A key innovation of the Paris Declaration is that the commitments are reciprocal in nature, applying both to donors and partner countries.  This creates for the first time the possibility for mutual accountability.

However, mutual accountability is a difficult principle to institutionalise.  A few countries (Tanzania; Vietnam) have introduced independent monitoring of aid effectiveness.  Under the 2006 Baseline Survey, 41% of countries reported having some kind of mutual review mechanism, although the quality of these reviews varies significantly.  Some commentators are sceptical that devices such as these can overcome the imbalance of power between donor and recipient.

The Paris Declaration itself provides little assistance. It refers both to accountability between donors and recipients on aid effectiveness, and to strengthening the domestic accountability of partner governments for their use of development resources in general.  The relationship between these different forms of accountability is unclear.

It is fair to say that at present there is little consensus on mutual accountability.  In preparation for Accra, the Joint Venture on Managing for Development Results is conducting two studies on mutual accountability: at country level (conceptual and good practice paper, recommendations); and at international level (study on existing mechanisms, synthesis report).  It is hoped that these studies will produce a clearer vision of how to move forward.